


sparks and embers

by riorants



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Traitor Eret (Video Blogging RPF), Traitor Toby Smith | Tubbo, im telling u right now its barely readable, is it stopping me, is this good writing? no, listen i had a plot when i started it just went downhill from there, me trying to do my homework:, my beta is grammar.ly ok bear with me, my brain : hehe drama on block game go brrrr, no i dont know how to tag, probably, surprise!! they're both traitors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:33:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26994481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/riorants/pseuds/riorants
Summary: Tired of Tubbo spending so much time at his sanctuary, Wilbur decides to burn it down. This has consequences.
Relationships: Eret & Toby Smith | Tubbo, platonic only
Comments: 15
Kudos: 240





	sparks and embers

**Author's Note:**

> listen!!! i have no idea what im doing!! please send help!!

The garden was - had been - a safe space for Tubbo, a place for him to come to unwind, train and get away from his problems for just a small amount of time. Maybe they didn’t understand that, Wilbur and the rest, but it was his. And now,  
he choked in a sob, hands over his mouth as he watched the flames rise, enveloping his chests, everything that he’d worked for, all because of Wilbur.  
Too much time spent here, he’d said, apologetically.  
You can build another one in l’manburg, he’d said.  
He needed to focus on the war, Wilbur had said, and he hadn’t.  
. . .  
Why hadn’t he? he should’ve just followed orders, he thinks sullenly, as Tubbo pokes around the rubble of his sanctuary, looking for anything salvageable, anything that he hadn’t lost.

Nothing.

There was nothing and suddenly breathing was getting hard, and he needed to sit down, but not here, anywhere but here.  
And then he was running, faster than he thinks he’s ever run before, from nothing to get to nowhere.  
Until he stopped and sat by a tree -- somewhere, he doesn’t think he’s been here before-- to think.  
He didn't know he was crying until he reached up to rub the ash off of his face and his hand came back damp.  
That broke him, fully and completely, until he was sobbing, wrapped around himself and breaking. He doesn't look up when a stick breaks across the clearing, or when he hears whispers. He only jolts when he's pulled into a tight hug, a stranger embracing him, and with his eyes closed, he doesn't know - doesn't want to know - who was pulling him tight against their chest, and running their fingers through his hair.  
It's only when he opens his eyes, to be met with the bright, toxic green, he stops, shoving the man away, the enemy away from him.  
Wilbur was going to be so disappointed in him.  
Dream didn't know why he was drawn to the forest today, why he couldn't stop from following his instinct. Except, when he stumbled across the soldier - just a kid, only a kid - he was pretty sure why. Tubbo, he thinks the kid's name is, sitting propped up against a tree, crying, and he didn't think before he acted. Pulling the soot-covered teenager into his arms, and running his fingers through his hair, he waited. For him to stop crying, for him to feel better, for him to be ready to talk.  
None of those happened.  
In a flash, the boy shoved the elder away, stumbling up to his feet, and standing, feet in a fighting position, as he fumbled for a sword before realizing he lost it in the fire.  
Hands raised slightly, empty of any weapon, Dream waited for the boy to get a bearing of the situation before he talked.  
"Are you okay?", he asked, after the five-second pause in the encounter had passed, and the boy glared at him.  
"This is none of your business," he snapped back, before deflating a bit. "I'm fine."  
Dream exhaled and nodded before turning to leave the clearing.  
"If you need to get out of there," he started, before pausing and sighing. "We have room on our team."  
And then he left, on his way to find out what happened, because a soldier doesn't break down in enemy territory out of nothing.  
Tubbo was still standing where he had been, five minutes after Dream had left, his words echoing.  
If you need to get out, we have room on our team.  
Why would he need to get out? Did the enemy general know something about what was happening in L'Manburg? How?  
Tubbo shakes his head and dries his eyes on his sleeve. He needs to go back before Wilbur-  
(the thought of going back hurts physically, but he has to. No matter what Dream had meant, there was no running from this.)  
-notices how long he had been gone for and sends someone out to get him.  
He walks back home (not his anymore, maybe, but still what he had).  
Outside the walls, his brother is waiting and scoops him up into a hug as soon as he gets close.  
"I'm so sorry," Eret whispers into his ear. "They didn't tell me."  
And Tubbo, for once, doesn't cry. He just pulls himself closer into the arms of the only person who he knew wouldn't judge him too harshly (he hopes) if he told him what had happened in the clearing  
The two brothers - not by blood, but by something much stronger - enter the walls together. They don't stop to tell anyone that Tubbo was back, or that they were going to sleep for the night. They just do.  
The next morning, an arrow is inside their doorway, with a note from Dream himself. Eret opens the letter with a resigned look and reads it with a determined one.  
An offer, it reads, to both of you. We can get you out if you want us to. You won't need to fight anyone. All we want is information, and then you can live your lives in peace. Tubbo reads the letter in silence, with his brother over his shoulder, and considers. The traitor to L'Manburg watching his brother face the same choice he had to.  
"It's up to you," he says softly and watches the feelings war across his brother's face.  
"I don't want to fight them," Tubbo whispers, and Eret's heart goes out to him.  
"You won't have to," he says, promises, his little brother forced to make a choice, nobody should. "I promise."  
The next night, instead of an arrow going in, two people are going out. They run to the border, where they're met by three others. Three men dressed nothing alike, yet so similar that anyone could tell they went together. The general and his two right-hand men.  
"He said yes?" The one in white, Sapnap, asked, surprised. He gets elbowed in the side by Dream, green sweatshirt and mask the same as they ever are.  
"He said yes." His brother smiles, arm wrapped around Tubbo's shoulders, remarkably calm for someone actively committing treason.  
“Well then!” Dream exclaims. “Welcome to the family!”

**Author's Note:**

> hehe block game go brrrr


End file.
